How I Got all 5 of My Babies to Sleep Through the Night

Having your babies waking up multiple times in the night can be a huge burden and weight on the mother over time. With this topic, there can be two very extreme opinions. I’m not here to fight my opinion and try to convince you to do so. I’m writing this post to offer help for those moms out there who do desire advice in this area.

I now have five children and was able to get each of my babies sleeping through the night by two months old. I would give majority of the credit to Baby Wise by Jackie Mize. This book helped direct my strategy in putting effort towards getting my babes to sleep through the night at an early stage.

Here are my 6 strategies I use each time:

Sleeping on stomach

I first want to say – I know there are statistics out there about SIDs, so I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SID incident.

Every time I switch my babies from their back to their belly, they fall asleep so much faster and sleep longer.

I’ve always wondered if putting them on their belly makes is easier for them to suck their thumb/finger. Because, so far, four of mine became thumb/finger suckers. The thing I liked about them sucking their thumb is that it easily soothed them and helped them to sleep once laid down.

Noise Maker

I use a fan or a humidifier in the room. The noise helps soothe the baby to fall asleep and to keep them sleeping. Then, when the baby sleeps in a strange place, making sure there is some kind of noise maker in the room often helps them fall asleep right away.

Routine

I’m a structured kind of person, so I need routine in my baby’s life to keep my own sanity. Again, Baby Wise laid this out very well for a routine/schedule. This book helped me understand the best routine for my baby.

A baby’s routine consists of – feeding, wake time, nap… repeat.

After 1 or 2 months, all my baby’s caught on to the routine. Warning: it does involve a lot of effort on your end as the mom. But through perseverance, you will eventually see the fruit. Once babies are on a routine, it becomes so much easier to know exactly what baby needs when crying.

One last full feeding

If you snack feed, then most likely the baby will wake up because of being hungry every few hours. Again, Baby Wise says that at eight weeks, your baby’s stomach is able to go eight hours without a feeding. So make sure that the last feeding before bedtime is a FULL feeding.

The question then comes, “What do you do if your baby wakes up before 6-8 hours?” Well, that leads to the next point.

Crying it out

If my baby is not sleeping by two months old, I usually pursue the route of having my babies cry themselves to sleep. I know some moms struggle to do this more than others, and some also have a very controversial opinion about this. I full well understand the struggle the mom experiences during this “cry it out” stage. It is NOT easy, but with each child, it only took 2-4 days of them crying it out through the night for them to not be waking up. (Setting aside the occasional wake ups because of teething, sickness, etc.)

The baby started getting a full nights rest and so did I! Plus, I noticed my babies were so much happier in the mornings if they got a full nights rest which means a happy mom and a happy baby!

Praying and Declaring over our children

I believe one of the biggest effects we can have on our children is praying for them and declaring positive things over their lives. Speak peace over their spirits. Every night as a couple, lay hands on your baby before you lay him/her down.

Declarations are also extremely effective in the spirit realm. I have created a set of Declarations that you and your children can speak over yourselves every day. Click here to receive the free downloads. I speak my set every day over myself, children, home, and marriage. And my children speak their set over themselves every night when tucked in bed.

This concludes the strategies that I used to get each of my five children to sleep through the night when they were a baby. I’m not here to say your baby must sleep through the night. I’m here to share my tips to those who want help in this area.

If you have any other tricks or strategies that you used, please share them in the comments below.

I’m so glad I am past this stage but these are great tips. I have pinned this to our Family Pinterest board to help other moms. I have a sister who has had many friends apply what you have shared from Babywise so it does work.

About Denise Renae

I’m here to be REAL in all my RELATIONSHIPS. I am a stay at home mom with 5 young children. My heart is to challenge and encourage you to ENDURE as a mother, wife, and a woman of God. My favorite thing is being in the woods with my family and friends. Which means I will be sharing with you some of our crazy family ADVENTURES with those that I LOVE. More About Me...